The invention resides in the broad field of tools and instruments for artists, both in using paints, i.e., paste or liquid, or in drawing, i.e., using pencil or charcoal, not pasty or liquid. Various difficulties and obstacles have been encountered by artists in both of these subfields and the present invention is directed to overcoming those difficulties and obstacles. The invention is embodied in several independent tools or items, that some of which can be utilized independently and alone, and they may also be used in certain circumstances in an assembly. For convenience, the individual tools or items may be referred to collectively, as apparatus, or device.
Difficulties encountered heretofore, include the following:
A. Hand contact with the art surface. PA1 B. Hand contact with the pallet. PA1 C. Steadiness, or lack of steadiness, in the painting/drawing hand. PA1 D. Positioning of the pallet relative to the art surface, vertically arranged, when mounted in the apparatus.
A. When painting or drawing, upon a horizontal surface such as a drawing board or table top, the artist's hand tends to smudge the material that was already applied to the art surface, and this was true whether the mediums were wet such as paints, inks, or dry, such as graphite, pastels, etc. Also oils and sweat from the hands may soil the art surface. In this step, both the art surface, and the artist's hand, were affected. Among the steps taken heretofore to overcome such a problem included placing a piece of paper on the drawing to act as a barrier between the working hand and the art surface, but the difficulties involved in this step are quite obvious, including as a principal one, smearing of the art surface.
An object of the invention is to provide means for overcoming this difficulty, which includes a hand bridge which may be utilized for spacing the hand from the art surface in the act of drawing or painting upon a horizontal art surface.
B. In the use of pallets known heretofore, very generally a hole was provided in the pallet for the user to extend his thumb through it, and the thumb engaged the upper surface of the pallet in holding it. This was objectionable for several reasons, a main one of which is that many paints and related mediums are toxic, and the user often encountered adverse conditions resulting from engagement with such mediums. As a less serious difficulty, the pallet was difficult to hold in the desired position, because it could be gripped in only a single manner.
Another important object of the invention is to provide a pallet with a special construction enabling it to be held by the hand by means of a handle on the back side of the pallet, so that the pallet may be held as desired and without the hand engaging any of the paint or other mediums on the pallet. Additionally this same handle enables the pallet to be mounted or incorporated in the complete apparatus or assembly, for a purpose referred to in "D" above. Still further, the pallet is provided with an arrangement, including a hole therethrough, for extending brushes and pencils therethrough for grasping by the hand of the user, on the underside of the pallet, while enabling these brushes and pencils to extend above the top surface of the pallet to enable the user to quickly grasp them and manipulate them.
C. It is well known that steadiness, or lack of steadiness, in the hand is an extremely great factor in art work. This steadiness factor is involved both in the immediate act of applying a medium to the art surface, and in the overall condition of the hand, such as fatigue or weariness. Q The present invention overcomes this problem to a great extent, by means of a novel hand bridge. This hand bridge may be used alone, independently of the other tools, or it may be used in the assembly or combination of all of the tools. As a separate item, it can be placed over the top of the art surface and the hand in resting on it, is held spaced from the art surface, eliminating smearing. It may be placed in any of several different positions for providing variable and different heights above the art surface, for using brushes, or pencils, respectively, which require holding at different positions, relative to the art surface.
Additionally, this same hand bridge can be incorporated with another component of the apparatus, the swing clamp, and when so mounted, it can be moved relative to the vertical art surface for producing the desired spacing of the hand from the art surface. In the use of the hand bridge in this manner, it may be compared with the manner in which Norman Rockwell painted, i.e., he used a rod having one end bearing on the art surface and the other end held in his hand. However, in that case, the rod was unattached and loose, and was correspondingly rather difficult to hold and manipulate, and there may not be a convenient and clear spot on which to rest the rod. In contrast to that, the hand bridge in the present case is mounted in the apparatus, free of the user's support, and is very convenient and can be easily positioned relative to the art surface both as to location within the bounds thereof and as to spacing therefrom. The arrangement accommodates great versatility of the artist.
D. Heretofore it has been difficult to position the pallet relative to the art surface, in the act of painting. When the artist held the pallet in one hand, he was handicapped to an extent, in that since one hand was occupied in holding the panel, the artist was not free to use both hands for various manipulations. In the present case, in the complete assembly or apparatus, the hand bridge is mounted in a clamp, and the pallet is mounted on the hand bridge, leaving both hands of the artist free. The hand bridge is mounted for movement relative to the art surface, and accordingly the pallet can be positioned relative to the art surface both as to spacing therefrom, and positioning it at various locations at the art surface. Heretofore when a pallet was not held in the hand, it may have been set on a separate piece of furniture, or mounted at the bottom of the art surface and in the case of a large painting, the artist necessarily had to move about, such as bending over and straightening up, or stepping, to reach the pallet and the art surface in the act of painting.
Another feature in this phase of the invention, is that the pallet when mounted on the hand bridge, is so mounted that it is rotatable about a vertical axis, so that the artist may place different mediums at different locations on the periphery of the pallet, and then move the pallet, rotationally, to place the desired medium, such as a particular color, adjacent the location on the art surface, providing a great convenience in minimum movement of the hand between the medium and the art surface.